On December 19th-22nd Dr Dr Roland Zarzycki visited Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi in Bursa within the Erasmus + Staff Mobility framework. Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi established in 1975 with almost 75 000 students is one of the largest academic institutions in Türkiye. It consists of 15 Faculties, 2 Schools, 15 Vocational Schools, 1 Conservatory, 4 Institutes, 27 Application and Research Centers and 1 Research Center. The mission of Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi is to educate “individuals who are equipped with contemporary knowledge and who are skilled at doing research and solving problems”.

During his visit, Dr Dr Zarzycki run a number of classes for Bachelor and Master students of Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi, including a lecture on the sociology of ideology. He also conducted two seminars for the faculty members at the Department of Political Science & Public Administration as well as the Department of Philosophy. In the course of discussions on joint teaching and scientific projects, plans for further cooperation were created with researchers from both units. The visit of Dr Dr Zarzycki has been arranged mainly thanks to the hospitality of two excellent scholars, Dr Gülçin Tunç and Prof. Mariusz Turowski.

One of the potential areas of collaboration between the scholars from Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi and Collegium Civitas may be researched on the interdependencies between migration processes and fundamental rights of various social groups, including migrants and minorities, for this issue is an extremely important factor of social life both in Turkey and in Poland. Another topic that was discussed during Dr Dr Zarzycki’s visit was a comparative study in the field of mapping ideology structures in both countries. As noted by Dr Dr Zarzycki, “Understanding certain local phenomena often becomes much easier when one is given the opportunity to analyze them against a broader, global perspective as well as to compare this local situation with its counterpart observed in a totally different socio-political context specific to another state. This is one of the great benefits of the Erasmus+ program both in terms of teaching and research.”